Welcome to Spring!

The final show of the DanceHouse season ends in May with Dada Masilo from South Africa, and we will tell you more about them and their work in the coming weeks. But we want to take this opportunity to let you know about the fantastic dance artists that will be coming to Vancouver as a part of the DanceHouse 2023/24 season! Three Canadian companies will be a part of the season: Nova Dance (Toronto), Côté Danse (Toronto) and Vancouver based (but world renowned!) Kidd Pivot. The remaining companies come from around the globe – Compañía Rocío Molina (Spain), Gravity and Other Myths (Australia), Elle Sofe Sara (Norway) and Dorrance Dance (US). That is seven internationally acclaimed contemporary dance companies hitting our stages from July ’23 through May ’24 – and you can buy a subscription series to see them all!

And while on the topic of DanceHouse, the DEADLINE to apply for the Louise Bentall Award for Emerging British Columbia Choreographers, sponsored by The Hawthorne Foundation and DanceHouse, has been extended until Monday, March 27. One emerging choreographer will be awarded $10,000 to research, develop or produce new work! Applications will be awarded based on the overall presentation of the proposal, the innovative qualities of the project, and the vision and potential of the artists involved. For all the details on the application process, check this out.

You still have a chance to catch EDAM ‘s Spring Choreographic Series on Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25. Three new dance works will be presented. Everything and Nothing, choreographed by Alexis Fletcher, this work in progress explores how cultivating a sense of togetherness with others and a re-bonding with the natural world, can nurture new ways of being as we face collective realities of endangerment, despair and isolation. In Osmocosm: The world of scents and other volatile molecules, choreographed and performed by Delia Brett & Isabelle Kirouac the audience and the performers merge their collective imagination in osmonautical travel. Voyaging from scent to language, to music, to dance and beyond we enter a deep space of volatile construction… And finally, EDAM’s Artistic Director Peter Bingham brings a directed dance improvisation to the stage, giving space for the strange, peripheral, vulnerable, and playful to unfold. Building on the ensemble’s research into associative vocal interjections and supported by EDAM’s creative grounds in Contact Improvisation, seven dancers navigate spatial and sensorial parameters. Above all, the work underscores the intrinsic care, trust, and commitment between the eight adept performers. At the EDAM theatre. Tix

Tonight and tomorrow, March 25 and 25, Mascall Dance Society presents Bloom 2023. Annually, Vancouver’s MascallDance invites choreographers into a choreographic residence. This leads to an informal performance for the public. Each artist presents a 5-minute dance. Each brief dance is paired with a wine by a sommelier, who introduces each tasting, and a comic follows each dance with comic musings about the dance. The experience is fleeting and convivial. Well-loved, BLOOM has been sparking creativity and delighting viewers for over two decades. This year’s choreographers are Lesley Telford, Emmalena Fredriksson, Marissa Wong / The Falling Company, and Eowynn and Isak Enquist with performers Justin Calvadores, C. Diab, Emmalena Frediksson, Caroline MacCaull, and Daria Mikhaylyuk. The performances will be accompanied by selected wines introduced by sommelier Lisa Hayley and interpreted by off-the-cuff comedian, Jen Griffin. At Left of Main, 211 Keefer St, 7 pm. Tix

Also tonight and tomorrow, March 24 and 25, Aakash Odedra Company and Bagri Foundation invite you to enter the world of Samsara. Inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, Samsara is a spellbinding piece that traces the steps we take, both forward and backward, in search of our higher selves. UK/Indian dancer Aakash Odedra and Chinese dancer Hu Shenyuan draw on their diverse disciplines of ballet, Chinese folk, kathak and contemporary dance to explore the notion of samsara: the wheel of life, birth, existence and re-birth. This compelling journey of self-development, fear and love traces a path across lands and through time, exploring the idea that if we let attachments go and allow light in, we might find a place of truth and peace. Drawing on thinking and imagery at the heart of Buddhist philosophy, Samsara’s mythological storytelling merges with personal experience from two globally opposite perspectives in a seductive, astonishing journey of twin movement. Presented as part of Vancouver International Dance Festival 2023.

Check this out, running on Saturdays until April 15: The Liberated Planet Studio (LPS) is a free workshop series for artists and activists interested in ecological and movement research at the intersections of social and environmental justice. Fourteen local and visiting artists, activists and academics will lead workshops. The project’s many collaborators will come together to experiment with socio-ecological concepts and collective movement practices. The LPS seeks to mobilize discourse about the intersections of environmental and social exploitation, human and animal experience and intercultural planetary struggles for liberation from the extractive logics of colonial capitalism. A guiding question is: “What would a liberated planet look like? And how might we achieve this together?” For more information on these workshops and to register, go here.

Until March 30 CADA West is having their “Unconference: It’s been a decade since the last CADA/West members unconference… What’s been happening? What are you working on? Anything irking you? How can we better support you in your career? We invite dance artists of all abilities, from all forms and at all career stages to come together for a jam-packed series of dance workshops, salons and shows. For those residing outside of MST Territories, please join us for a day of hybrid offerings. All events are FREE! This looks like a really FUN conference, so if you are a member of CADA West (or want to join), check out all the events here.

Thursday, March 30, the Dance Centre Discover Dance! Series presents Dancers of Damelahamid, an Indigenous dance company with a rich history of masked dance which inspires compelling performances. Spirit and Tradition layers vibrant dances, singing, drumming, and projected imagery to immerse us in the ecosystems and culture of the Indigenous lands and waters of the Northwest Coast. Tracing themes of reciprocity and ecological sustainability, the work shares important teachings on balance, interconnectedness, and community. At the Scotiabank Dance Centre, noon. Tix

Check out this awesome opportunity being offered by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (vAct), hosted by Morrow on March 27. Looking to improve your skills and instinct as a producer? Duties and responsibilities of a producer in the live performance sector constantly change, adapt and sometimes a new skill must be learned through a quick YouTube tutorial video. The role of a producer can be broad or highly specific depending on the project and “good” producing can be a subjective opinion. How can an artist begin or maintain the complex demands to produce a show or an event? Join us in this intimate roundtable panel discussion moderated by Dumb Instrument Dance Artistic Director, Ziyian Kwan, with producers Jocelyn Tsui, Argel Monte de Ramos, Shanae Sodhi, and Maiko Bae Yamamoto as they share their thoughts and experience on best practices as emerging, mid-career, and established producers. This event is for artists of all levels interested in producing (self or for other companies), looking to share and learn in a peer-to-peer setting. FREE to attend and event is with Food provided. Best Practices is co-produced with the generous support of Dumb Instrument Dance REGISTER here 6pm Morrow 910 Richards St SUITE 204

Dancers out there, check this out: On April 15 & 16, Dancer and Choreographer Nova Bhattacharya (Nova Dance) invites auditions for an opening invocation performance, presented alongside Svāhā! a creative development and community performance opportunity for dance lovers, in July 2023 as part of the Indian Summer Festival. With a cast of over 20 performers selected from a diversity of dance forms and cultural backgrounds, Svāhā! brings differences together in a collage of moving images, offering metaphors, recitation, pulsating rhythms and intense emotions, revelling in simplicity and embracing complexity, Svāhā! asks, how can we be better together? While this is a volunteer opportunity, you will be gifted a solo, developed with professional dancers, that you may perform in the future. All women-identifying dancers in Metro Vancouver seeking opportunities for performance and learning from/with established professional dancers are invited to apply. For more information on the audition and the commitment to rehearsal times, go here